We've always had cut, real Christmas trees in our house. They look nice and used to have a lovely smell, especially in the morning if the room door was closed overnight. The Nordman Fir (?) type dropped less but had no smell. Now I think even the original dropping type trees have little or no smell.
There being no decent aroma anymore and allowing for all the clearing/disposal hassle, I plan this year to have a reusable plastic one shipped all the way from China via a high street store. The plastic one will probably last say 10 years before it needs replacement.
So, in a typical Christmas tree owning household over say 50 years what's best for the environment? 50 cut down pine type trees, later dumped for landfill (or maybe used for animal food I believe) or 5 plastic ones ?
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The most environmentally sound answer would be to dispense with a tree completely I suppose. We normally save a suitable branch from a tree pruning, paint it white and decorate that. Looks good and attracts compliments.
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Bah Humbug...we have a ten year old plastic and metal tree. It looked ok last year, sh should be ok this year. Some of it is clearly recyclable. The real tree industry seems to be environmentally suspect.
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>> The most environmentally sound answer would be to dispense with a tree completely Christmas. - Seriously its an environmental disaster from end to end.
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That’s me. Since I bought my first house aged 21 I’ve never, ever had a tree or any decorations. Me and both ex Mrs LLs were too busy working long retail hours to bother at home. This year I’m sending one card to my old mum. Don’t see the point of cards. If you know someone pick up the breeding phone and chat. Off walking in the Canaries soon...home as late as possible on the 24th.
Xmas lunch is a matching pair of Toulouse bangers, Heinz beans, 2 fried eggs, oven chips.
Decorating a few rooms 26-31 Dec then skiing early January. Back to Spain mid January.
Apologies for the toxic air miles
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"The most environmentally sound answer would be to dispense with a tree completely I suppose. We normally save a suitable branch from a tree pruning, paint it white and decorate that. Looks good and attracts compliments."
This could go down in history as the most sensible thing that you've ever said, CG. I shall give you a thumbs up for that.
It was shortly after we'd bought our plastic/metal artificial tree about 30 years ago that I started fretting about the over-use of plastic. OK, so much of the green plastic has now fallen off and the 'Which' report's verdict that it it looked like a bog-brush becomes more apt every year. My wife says that it's time to sling it and has introduced something along the lines of CG's idea which, to be honest, I think looks rather good.
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I have to agree with Z. Total environmental disaster. Totally out of hand. Rampant consumerism. Purchases of short lived useless trash. Excess unrecyclable waste.
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Love Christmas, love Christmas decorations, love a tree.
I try to manage.my environmental impact but if that was all that drove me, or the thing that was more important than anything else, I'd be better off shooting myself. So it's not.
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Plastic is never the right answer.
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Well I guess Haywain solves one of his billion population issues, and we get one less environmental Christmas problem, is that win win?
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.....depends on whether he's being cremated or buried in a plastic coffin......
(Sky burial as a Christmas treat for the Condors?)
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>> Sky do funerals ? :-)
>>
...yup! Slightly more upmarket than Easyhearse.
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>> if that was all that drove me ... I'd be better off shooting myself
No, no, no - please don't do that!
Shoot your children first, as they have 60+ years of consumption ahead of them.
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Or buy a real tree with roots. We did that in the 70s and planted it after Christmas. Many years later we had to cut it down as it was higher than the house but while it was there it brought back super memories.
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Real Christmas trees can be carbon neutral. They are grown as a crop, or are thinnings from conifer plantations. If they are disposed of responsibly, they are shredded and composted and returned to the land. They are acidic, so a good mulch for Rhododendrons etc.
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What about the carbon footprint of transportation and cultivation
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>> What about the carbon footprint of transportation and cultivation
Good question. Mrs B's cousin who is an LGV driver based in West Midlands has told of trips to Northern Scotland to pick load comprised of Xmas trees.
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>> Good question. Mrs B's cousin who is an LGV driver based in West Midlands has
>> told of trips to Northern Scotland to pick load comprised of Xmas trees.
We have a couple of Xmas tree farms nearby, they cut down, you rock up and take away, they replant, been going for at least 30 years so clearly their replanting scheme works quite well, the plantation never seems to diminish. I doubt any water goes on it, nor soil treatment, so I guess the only environmental impact is cars rocking up to take them away.
Doesn't diminish from Xmas as a whole being an annual environmental disaster tho. At every step and in every form.
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>> What about the carbon footprint of transportation and cultivation
Or the container loads of plastic ones coming from China.
On another front, exporting jobs from the UK>
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Xmas. I don't take part. I AM carbon neutral. i dont give. i dont receive and i aint correcting the simple typos that should automatically be replaced in this day and age. grumpy old Git. sorry, should have been a small g. :-)
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No need to correct. Ewe were correct first time.
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>>Xmas. I don't take part. I AM carbon neutral. i dont give. i dont receive and i aint correcting the simple typos that should automatically be replaced in this day and age. grumpy old Git. sorry, should have been a small g. :-)
God is with ^this gisa
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If it was up to me all the Xmas mummery would be ignored. No tree, no decorations, no cards, no useless presents. It is NOT up to me in our house.
Signed:-
The Grinch.
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Christmas Environmental Conundrum - CGNorwich
